A spokeswoman for former President Bill Clinton confirmed yesterday that the 42nd president will be speaking at Tufts on March 13 as part of the annual Issam M. Fares lecture series.
Clinton, who will address "our shared future and globalization in the 21st century," will speak at the Gantcher Convocation Center, the largest indoor space on the Medford Campus.
President Larry Bacow said he was excited for the former US president's visit. "We are very pleased to have President Clinton as Fares lecturer, I'm looking forward to meeting him and hearing him speak," Bacow said.
According to the Dean of Students Office, the 1,150 available student tickets will be distributed on three different days at the Campus Center and at Dowling Hall. Tufts Public Relations Office would not comment on the event.
Tickets to hear last year's speaker, now-Secretary of State Colin Powell, disappeared almost immediately, as students rushed to hear the Nov. 2 lecture, an address titled "Management of Crisis and Change: The Middle East."
Leila Fawaz, who organizes the Fares series, said yesterday that bringing prominent political figures to campus "doesn't mean that we like their politics, but it is to expose students to leaders that are affecting their lives."
In the past, the lecture series has also been responsible for bringing to campus such noteworthy speakers as former President George Bush, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and former Secretary of State James Baker.
Fawaz, who serves as director of the Center of Eastern Mediterranean Studies, said Clinton would provide "balance" to his conservative counterparts who have visited Tufts over the years. "We've had a lot of Republicans," she said.
Fawaz said the lecture was particularly timely, since leaders who have recently left office still have a fresh perspective on global issues. "We got Bush the year he left office and we got Clinton the year he left office," Fawaz said.
A Clinton spokeswoman said last month that the former president "looks forward to coming to Tufts."
The Issam M. Fares lecture series was created in 1991 by Tufts graduate Fares Fares, in honor of his father. Issam Fares is the current deputy prime minister of Lebanon and an honored philanthropist, as well as a former trustee of the University.
